Design challenge-driven innovation policies to promote university-industry collaboration

From 30 to 31 January, the Policy Learning Platform is organising a peer review for the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Portugal. 

The Azores are a nine-island archipelago, guided by rythms and developments that are hardly collective due to their geographical discontinuity.

From the R&D development point of view, the Azores first S3 strategy (2014-2020) tried to implement policy actions to increase SMEs’ innovation capacities and university-industry collaboration. However, the projects lacked a clear focus or strategy that could boost a more effective technology and knowledge transfer between academia and private companies.

The new S3 strategy (2022-2027) wants to implement transformative processes in R&D&I which will rely on open-call projects, funded by the Programme Azores 2030, Horizon Europe and the regional budget.

To address this specific place-based challenge of increasing the university-industry innovating collaboration, the Azores requests the expertise of Peers to determine whether a regional (mini) mission-oriented policy could set a concrete and feasible line of action that will foster this transfer of knowledge and promote the intended collaboration.

Hence, the Autonomous Region of the Azores seeks advice on the following policy challenges: